


All the World's a Stage

by NeverComingHome



Category: Rugrats
Genre: F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-03
Updated: 2013-04-03
Packaged: 2017-12-07 10:09:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/747308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NeverComingHome/pseuds/NeverComingHome
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Spanning from high school to post college, Susie and Angelica find their way together eventually.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All the World's a Stage

Angelica is really dramatic.

Probably since the day her mother had been forced to deliver her in the nurses station at a fancy dinner party. Angelica Charlotte Pickles was welcomed into the world amongst applause, whispers of envy and obnoxiously high standards. Everyone awed over her as she was carried delicately through the room and into a waiting ambulance, the coldest eyes softening at the very sight of her.

She'd spend the rest of her life trying to recreate this moment.

~*~

 

Susie becomes her friend mostly because she refuses to believe that anyone can be born that full of themselves. They stay friends because they both know that in a weird way they complete each other. One night when they're drunk Susie tries to explain it to her.

"I'm dark and you're light."

Angelica snorts, "Okay racist."

"No, I mean, like we go together. I'm the nice one all the time except when I'm a bitch and you're bitchy all the time except when you're really nice."

"God, Carmichael," Angelica rolls her eyes, "You think with that big head of yours you'd actually make sense half the time. Pity." 

Then she gets up to dance with the guy Susie just left to prove she can do it better.

~*~

Two weeks before Prom Angelica corners her in the locker room.

"Ask Mark Derek out."

"Okay Angelica."

"Don't you want to know why?" Susie shrugs. "Well I'm telling you so you know the severity of the situation. He's going to ask me out and I just can't be caught dead even talking to that little kumquat."

"Why not? I think there's some cute behind all that hair."

"His last name sounds like a first. Just do it."

"I already said I would."

Angelica looks at her like she's an idiot, "Duh."

Susie is sort of more confused than she was before Angelica had explained herself so she just shrugs again and closes her locker up.

~*~

Mark Derek turns out to be a pretty great date actually. He gets a haircut, puts in his contacts and borrows one of his father's tuxedos. When he pulls up in the limo along with George Thompson, Angelica's date, both girls give a small dreamy sigh. Angelica glares when she realizes it and Susie just laughs.

At the dance while George ogles everything in a dress, Mark fetches drinks and proves his skills on the dance floor. His mother used to be a professional ballroom dancer and the couples watch in awe as he flips, dips and spins Susie beneath the technicolor lights. When her band drags her away from him and onto the stage he leaves to find a red rose and holds it to his chest while mouthing the words to "Hopelessly devoted" right along with her.

"You're so gorgeous tonight," he says after grabbing another round of drinks for everyone at the table, kneeling between Susie and Angelica, "your voice is like music."

Susie giggles, taking a sip of punch, "That's because I was singing, Mark."

"No I mean like all the time."

"Alright boy hand over whatever it is you're sipping on."

They laugh and Angelica's lip curls.

Behind the staircase she crushes her mouth against George's, her dress slipping off in various directions.

"Do you think I'm beautiful?" she asks quietly.

"Yeah, baby." He runs his hand up her leg, wrapping it around his waist.

"The most beautiful one here?"

The idiot actually stops to think about it before saying, "Yes, definitely."

"Better than-" And before she can get it out he's rocking into her and she's biting down on her lower lip to counteract the pain between her legs.

~*~

Susie finds her in the bathroom of some post-prom house party.

"Where's George?"

"I sent him home. He served his purpose." Her lip doesn't waver a bit.

Susie comes up behind her, placing her hand on the middle of the blonde's back, "Did it-?"

"No."

"So it was nice?"

Angelica meets her eyes in the mirror. "It was perfect."

Susie's smile is so genuine it makes Angelica want to puke.

"Good. You don't deserve anything less."

 

~*~

When Susie gets her acceptance letter from a fine arts school that definitely isn't the university they'd both been planning to attend, Angelica is furious. She tells Susie's dad she's sick when he invites her to the dinner they're holding in Susie's honor. She lays beneath the blankets listening to Coldplay and imagining everyone there worrying over her when they should be paying attention to Susie.

 

~*~

Susie doesn't have time to worry if anything is wrong. She works on finding another lead singer for her band, finishing out the school year and making enough money to afford her plane ticket while having some sort of social life. At lunch she asks Tommy if he's heard from Angelica and he shrugs.

"She's spending all her time with good ol' whathisface, haven't seen her 'cept in the halls."

"Yeah same here. Do you think I should call her?"

Before he can reply both their phones ring.

On graduation day the Ps and C's are on opposite ends. When Susie walks up on stage to get her diploma she spots Angelica sitting with the rest of their year, her legs crossed and looking directly at her. Susie grins and waves, but the camera flash is too bright. She assumes that Angelica waves back and is too busy smiling graciously as she walks down the isle to notice Angelica's foot kicking out so hard it knocks over the seat in front of her.

~*~

The Pickles and Carmichaels combine forces to throw one of the most anticipated graduation parties thrown by parents perhaps in the history of ever. The music is an easy mix of classic rock and hip hop and the DeVilles let them use their new house (which Betty had built after finally buying the construction company she'd worked for). For the occasion it's been outfitted with crystal chandeliers and a game room that makes Tommy and Phil go just about catatonic when they see it. The house is packed with people there to celebrate Susie and Angelica's accomplishments, but instead are forced to mingle and talk amongst themselves.

"What's wrong with you, girl?" Susie leans against the wall, staring at the closed bathroom door in front of her.

"Of course you wouldn't know, Carmichael. You just love playing the adorable oblivious role."

Susie picks at the fabric of her graduation robe. "I'm not playing any role, Angelica this is just who I am," she groans, then smiles. "Which you think is adorable?"

"GO AWAY. God, take a hint."

Susie crosses to the other side, wiggling her fingers beneath the bathroom door. "Only if you tell me what's wrong."

"You are." Susie stops wiggling her fingers. "You're always messing everything up. Just go. If you're going to go just go."

Susie places her hands in her lap, "Is this about having to share your party with me?"

The door opens just enough so that Susie can see half of her friend's face when she says, "Yes" then slams it shut. 

Susie wants to say a lot of horrible things to Angelica, she really does, and she hasn't wanted to do that since Angelica spread those rumors about her family around after Susie stole _back_ her boyfriend. But like last time she can't actually bring herself to say any of them. Instead she takes off her new high heels so they don't scuff, kicks at the door and yells at Angelica to grow up before stomping down the stairs.

She tells everyone that she needs to go do something, but will be back in time to cut the cake. Susie doesn't come back. She hears from Chuckie that Angelica wore a gravity defying black dress and that everyone "ooed" and "awed" over her as she walked down the staircase. Her parents announced she got into Dartmouth and everyone clapped and presented her with gifts in between envious whispers. At the end of the night her boyfriend carried her out of the room and into his car to the sound of laughter.

"Did she look happy?"

"I think she did."

Susie curls up tighter in the chair, glancing at Mark still slumbering quietly in the hotel bed, "Good."

~*~

When Susie leaves, Phil proclaims his undying love for her and kisses her on the cheek. Lil and Kimi promise to take good care of the band and Tommy smiles crookedly, punches her shoulder and tells her to make them proud. Chuckie gets a pass to walk her to the gate, hands interlaced behind his back, glasses slipping down to the bridge of his nose.

"Where's the other Pickles?"

"Trapped in its own jar." Chuckie frowns not getting it. "Angelica and I…me and her weren't cut out to be friends."

Chuckie takes a seat beside her, "I don't know about that. She's been extra special since you've stopped talking to her."

"She thinks I'm only here to steal her spotlight and the whole reason I didn't choose university was so we could stop competing with one another. I cared more about our friendship. Isn't that doing the right thing?"

"Maybe you should have talked to her about it?"

"When has anyone ever been able to talk sense into that girl?"

"Must run in the blood." Chuckie mutters going red instantaneously. Susie laughs, about to respond to that when the speaker begins to call out her flight number. She musses his hair.

"Keep in touch."

"Always." 

~*~

The day Angelica leaves for Boston the gang gives her brief hugs beneath the eyes of their parents and wish her a good trip. Her mother air kisses her cheek and insists she calls when she gets there and Drew hugs her so tight she thinks he'll break something and has to be pulled off by his brother

"My little angel," he sobs into Stu's shoulder, "I'm sending you mace sweetheart!"

"Pull yourself together Drew," his wife and daughter chorus, rolling their eyes in unison.

~*~

She hates the people at first. They're sort of pushy and their accents make her wince, but her professors adore her and without a Susie to compete directly against she considers everyone her rival. In her free time she hangs out at bars, sweet talking the managers and bartenders into drinks despite her age. One night when one of them is whining about lack of talent she thinks of a band she saw in another bar last week and remembers the mock court session on finder's fees. Her favorite thing in the world is to make people do what she wants, when she wants it, how she wants it. The money is just a bonus.

After one of the three bands she's juggling suggests she starts to make cards up she changes her minor and decides to become an entertainment lawyer. With the extra money she moves off campus because she's always despised curfews. Her roommate is a community college student working as a waitress. Angelica chooses her because her last name sounds familiar and when she looks it up an hour before the interview she realizes her cousin is the son of Angelica's dad's old boss. He was written up in the local paper for starting up his own business selling medical supplies.

Angelica waits until they've lived together a few weeks before staging a conversation with her father in which she expresses over the top interest in the business. Her roommate approaches her that night.

"I know this is out of the blue, but I think you'd really like one of my cousins. I sort of,er, listened in on your conversation with your dad and I think you two might hit it off."

"You're forgiven," Angelica says flippantly, "Sure, I'll give the guy a chance."

"Great. I'll set it up."

Tobias is a complete nerd, but he has potential. They have coffee and she doesn't have to pretend to be interested in his work because she truly is. She runs her internal calculator, figuring how much he's worth now as opposed to how much he'll be worth in five years. She questions him on the ins and outs of his company, stock options and a variety of other things that he thought no friend of his cousin would know anything about. She excuses herself to the bathroom and predicts that if he stays on the same path a relationship with him would be a profitable sacrifice of her time.

"Tobias," she sighs in her letting-em-down-easy voice, "I really like you, but I'm looking for something a little more in my life right now. Someone who's on the same wavelength as me. When you start to buckle down give me a call."

He gapes and she can feel his eyes watching her as she leaves the café.

~*~

A year or so after they start dating Angelica cheats for the first time. It's after one of her band's gigs and living up to his word her professor snagged her an interview for an internship at an up and coming music label notorious for promoting its underlings. She was informed earlier over the phone that she was in no uncertain terms the only candidate they'd even consider for the job. She orders a dry martini in celebration and instead of Larry, the usual bartender, she's greeted by Nate. His skin is smooth and brown and a red bandanna frames short dread locks that stick out in various directions. His body is toned, but slender and she can't take her eyes off him as he flits from one end of the bar to the other delivering drinks. She licks her lower lip and when he hands her a glass she slides a fifty into his pocket.

"Stick around handsome." He smiles awkwardly and does.

The guy is as queer as a three dollar bill. He likes it when she pins his arms above his head and doesn't notice that she closes her eyes because he's closing his too. When she's beneath him and he hits the right spot by accident she hisses, "Su-Su-"

"Suck?" She blushes red in the dark, caresses his cheek, "Yes."

Afterward, kneeling at the side of the bed, tracing the curves in his back she realizes who he reminds her of. She wakes him up and places her card between his teeth with a predatory grin.

"Call me anytime Stallion."

He takes the card from his mouth, looking as if he has something to admit, but instead just nodding, "Okay Angelica."

Her breath catches and she kisses him roughly, her fingers digging into the back of his neck. He groans and reaches out for her just when she pulls away.

 

~*~

"I'm gay," he admits three months later, "but I'm so in love with you."

"Get over it."

Angelica changes the channel, wonders how long she has before Tobias's dinner party.

"Being gay?"

"No, stupid," she rolls her eyes, "being in love with me."

He frowns in a way she finds absolutely adorable, "Right."

~*~

Days after she passes the bar exam Tobias proposes. She tells him she'll have to think about it, already planning on saying yes. She'd made plans to go with Nate to New York for the opening of his friend's restaurant and she tells him the news on the plane.

He congratulates her, "So is this goodbye?"

"What?" she glares and he glances quickly out the window.

"Nothing. I think you'll totally love this place, darling."

She relaxes back into the seat, "I better."

~*~

It's a nice place. A lounge atmosphere with five star dining taste. A place for those who have money, but don't act like it. She wonders why Nate would think that fit her at all. The waiters and waitresses are in designer street clothes and take down their orders on ipads which she guesses is pretty cool and the meals project the style of the restaurant, humble yet exquisite with marvelous presentation. She pecks at the statuesque salad and observes everyone else's reactions to it while pretending to listen to Nate talk about how some of his old high school friends are in town.

"We're meeting them for drinks after."

"I'm ecstatic," she replies flatly and gives him her cheek when he leans over the table to kiss her.

~*~

The club is one of those stereotypical dark room bright lights type deals, an exaggerated house party with better drinks and slightly less inferior sound equipment. Nate's friends are grinning entities made up mostly of hot air and groping fingertips. Fashion has had a love child with the 70s and 80s so everyone around is outfitted in patch work bell bottoms and flashy tanks, both guys and girls. She sends Nate a long suffering look, but he just grins and flirts with everything in a bandanna.

After lasting two songs she excuses herself to the bathroom, resting the back of her head against the tiles and closing her eyes. Maybe before this could have been her scene, she could have rocked it old Angelica style so that everyone else looked like posers. If she'd gone to study music and not the business of it, if she'd worked on her singing and taken up the odd jobs or something. But that just wasn't her. She'd learned that from the band she'd been working with; they were just tools used by the industry. Angelia Pickles is not a tool. It makes her feel a little better until she opens her eyes and sees two women making out against the sink. She clears her throat.

"Excuse me. Could you take the queer somewhere else?"

"Listen, lady-"

Susie. Carmichael.

Susie clears her throat, touching the other woman's hand and nodding towards the door. It's one of Nate's friends, a brunette with large brown anime eyes and a crooked nose. Angelica glares.

"What's a girl like you doing in a place like this?" Susie grins and they start to argue.

Angelica doesn't want to hear about how Susie had some sort of life changing epiphany while in California that made her realize she was so focused on pleasing other people she didn't really know what she wanted; and Susie doesn't want to know why Angelica pushed her away all those years ago.

The old Susie would have. The old Susie would have listened before she made her attack, but this new woman with the long braids and caramel colored slacks is raising her voice and just flat out not giving Angelica the chance to take control of the situation.

"Shut up, Carmichael!" Angelica finally screeches, feeling like she's four years old again and the new girl is taking all the attention like it's her god given right, like everyone else should just accept that she's all that's right and good without putting up a fight.

"Why should I?"

"Because I'm trying to tell you that I love you! Did you like screw the brains straight out of your head or something? Because if that's what girl sex does then never mind."

Then, in perfect Angelica fashion, she storms out. There's a line of women that watch the ex friends exit, but for once Angelica isn't paying attention to other people.

~*~

When Susie shows up at her hotel room the next day Nate lets her in because he doesn't know why he shouldn't. Angelica finds them sitting on the couch talking about the restaurant where she is apparently trying to get a job at as a chef.

They're both wearing jeans and promotional brown and beige shirts the restaurant gave out. Side by side they look like twins. Susie catches her eye and smirks, her voice sweet as she points out how much her and Nate have in common.

"You do seem to have a type, honey," he laughs.

"Yeah, tall dark and queer obviously."

Angelica slips on her shoes while Susie raises an eyebrow at Nate who shrugs. "I think it's like a Cher thing."

She doesn't really get it, but nods anyways.

~*~

They go out to lunch and it's almost as if they're frenemies again. Susie tells Angelica that Tommy is dating Lil (while not talking to Phil) and Chuckie is in school to be a teacher; neither is really surprised that Angelica doesn't know all this seeing as how she only ever put up with Tommy and his friends because they were entertaining and easy to manipulate.

Such as it is with small towns, everyone else is pretty much the same. They run out of things to talk about because Angelica doesn't want to hear anything about Susie that doesn't have something to do with how much the other was positively lost without her and Susie can't get over the fact that she actually expected that Angelica might have changed even a little bit.

Susie pays and orders a cab, her shoulders brushing against Angelica's as they wait at the curb for it. She decides to focus on the one thing that is different.

"So you're in love with me, huh?"

"Yes." Angelica lifts her nose so high into the air she's just about looking up.

"How long?"

"I don't know. Birth probably."

"Cool."

"And now I have to break up with two hot guys. By the time you manage to even get a job Tobias will have had like ten kids and be in Time magazine."

Susie takesthe blonde's fingers between hers one at a time until they're holding hands. Angelica looks down and tries very hard not to smile.

"But Nate will still be working in a bar," Susie supplies, "hitting on gay women and straight boys."

"At least he'd be working."

"I'm a great cook, give me time. What if I make it on Bon Appetite?" Susie's lips are perilously close to Angelica's ear. "Will that be good enough?"

Instead of voicing the vile insult that flashed into her mind Angelica focuses on not looking Susie in the eye. "Yes."

The kiss is soft and quick and definitely not the fireworks Angelica was expecting. She'd expected lights dancing behind her eyes, people stopping in the street, heads being turned and-well not exactly clapping, but smiles or better yet glares prompting a deeper kiss and maybe a dip; something dramatic and heart racing that would make the world slow down and take notice, but it's nothing like that. As Susie leads her into the cab (giving the driver the address with her hand still gripping Angelica's) she honestly couldn't care less.


End file.
